| Project by Scott Hildenbrand | posted 915 days ago | 1856 views | 0 times favorited | 9 comments |  |
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Well the grape vines were no where near as problematic as the blueberries. Mostly because the site for them was pre existent so that nothing much needed done.. In fact, the soil there is great and I can simply plunge my hand into the ground and pull up a fist full of nice, dark, loose soil.
So, it was an easy task for my son and I.. Well.. Maybe just I.. He was getting tired at that point and went to play in the wet leaves.
When I got these in it was kind of surprising not only how beefy these were, but also how huge the root system was.
When we started planting I ended up digging 1’x3’ trenches in order to plant the vines into and to not screw up the root system.
Now, these are planted a little close but I’m not worried about production. It’s just for the fun of it.
Like I said, the structure and soil prep was already done, however a month or so earlier I’d taken the time to pull down the pipe you see laying on the ground and replace it with 14ga wire with a ratchet tensioner so that I can support the vines better.
The pipe will be used to re-run a water spigot to the back yard. I think they used copper before, it’s dead now. This one won’t die.
As I said, the spacing is a little tight on these but I’m going for a top/bottom growth method on the vines. That being something like the following, where one plant uses the bottom line (3’ off the ground) to grow and fruit on, and the next uses the top line (6’ off the ground).
So I’m going to have:
| ~ | ~ | ~ |
Well.. You get the idea.
-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b
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9 comments so far
MsDebbieP
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8102 posts in 1148 days
hardiness zone 5b
posted 915 days ago
I got the idea… great plan.
We used to have grapes but they had been left to grow into a mess so we took them all out.. probably should have left one or two new vines.. but we didn’t.
-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan
Scott Hildenbrand
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1658 posts in 920 days
hardiness zone 6b
posted 915 days ago
Yeah, they’re hard to deal with when left to their own devices. We’d had 3 that were left. I killed two off, not worth saving.. One is left and added those 4 above it it..
I’m not real sure what kind was planted before we moved in.. Guess I’ll see this year if it fruits.
-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b
Jason
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840 posts in 1002 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 914 days ago
Looks great! You’re putting in a lot of great work early!
-- Living on the square...Metro Detroit
jroot
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3198 posts in 778 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 770 days ago
Now you are giving me a good idea. Maybe I can grow my own grapes, and make my own wine, and have a good party or two or three or… Hmmm, I can just see it now. I might have to sacrifice the space of the mint plants which are going crazy this summer. Sounds like a project for the fall.
-- jroot
jroot
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3198 posts in 778 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 770 days ago
Oh, what kind of grapes?
-- jroot
Scott Hildenbrand
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1658 posts in 920 days
hardiness zone 6b
posted 769 days ago
Seedless Concord..
Just plant the grapes along with the mint. They’ll grow up high on their support system (which ever you choose) while the mint grows at the base.
Then you can have some minty grape jelly.. or wine.. hmm..
;)
-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b
jroot
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3198 posts in 778 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 768 days ago
Seedless concord sounds like a good grape. My father has concord grape vines, but they had those nasty seeds, and the filtration process to make a jelly was a pain. Seedless sounds good, and I gather that they are fairly hardy as well. Good thinking. Thanks for being a mentor.
-- jroot
Rog
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75 posts in 704 days
hardiness zone 8b
posted 478 days ago
Good work Scott.
I just plant two Niagara grape vines (which are of the seedless type) last month and was wondering what type and gauge of wire to use to support them. I planted them 15 feet apart were they will get about 10 hours of sun per day. We have had about 5 days in the 70’s and I already have new growth on them. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
-- Listen quitely and nature will tell you what to do..Open your eyes widely and you will be amazed..
Scott Hildenbrand
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1658 posts in 920 days
hardiness zone 6b
posted 478 days ago
The wire I used was 14 gauge fence wire from the local co-op, but they say in most lit to use 12. Since I wasn’t doing long orchard runs, 14 was fine.. Have TONS left over.
It was held in place with standard galvanized fence staples. The top row had the same, but it was a tentioned line which led down to a fence tensioner which was anchored into the ground via stake.
-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b